BASIC-Software

The ACST Weather Station Project uses a MicroController called Dios, from Kronos Robotics.
The (Manufacturer's Page) has lots of details, all the manuals etc.
Dios uses a Chip made by MicroChip Technology - the 18F252 (Detailed Spec. Sheet)
Dios is programmed in a Computer Language which looks like a simplified version of VISUAL BASIC.

A Computer program written for the Dios can use many different INSTRUCTIONS. You only Need To Know a few to get started:

print (Uh, PRINTS what you tell it to on the screen.) Like this:
print "Hello World!" Notice the " (quote mark) before and after the letters you want to print.
print 2 (Prints just the numeral 2)
print 2 + 2 ( prints 4 )
print 4 * 4 * 3.1416 (Prints the area of a circle with radius of 4)

OK, we already see it can do MATH. Here's a list of some of the MATH operators you can use:

(asterisk) Multiplication
/ Division
+ Addition
- Subtraction

A BASIC Program

These computer programs are a written list of instructions that tell the computer what to do. The computer can only understand certain words and instructions. If it doesn't understand a word, it will show you an error.

Here's a very simple program:

print "Hello World ! This is a program "
print 2 * 2
print 3 * 100
print "The answer to 5 times 5 is ", 5 * 5

More detailed programming will happen in class as we figure things out !